Protests raging in Pakistan

Members of Pakistan’s Christian community protested on Sunday against an attack on a Christian colony a day earlier by a mob allegedly led by activists of the Jamaat-ud Dawa (JuD) in Lahore. The mob set ablaze 150 houses in apparent protest against the remarks made by a Christian sanitary worker in adjoining Gujranwala city a day earlier.

On Sunday, community leaders, backed by other political figures, said the Lahore attack came at the behest of extremist religious parties like the JuD and the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, who are in an electoral alliance with the PML-N party led by former PM Nawaz Sharif.

At a rally in Peshawar, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan condemned the Joseph Colony attack and said this action was the result of the provincial government’s “seat adjustment with terrorists.” The PML-N has come under fire for its poll tie-ups with extremists.